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I have a Celestron Astromaster 130 which was a gift, and I agree that the standard CG3 manual mount is not very good, but it can be used if you know how to align it and find objects by hopping etc, but there are alternatives. I run Astromaster 130 on an iOptron Smartstar G Goto mount and it works fine. Normally the iOptron Smartstar is used for 90mm refractors but it can hande the weight of the Astromaster 130 provided you do a couple of standard mods for the iOptron Smartstar cube. The mods are:
Replace the standard size teflon clutch washer with a slightly larger one, which will prevent slippage, and
Secondly, brace the altitude gear carrier with a short piece of pencil on each side against the cast medal body.
I have run a AR102 short fl refractor on the mount without slippage. I regularly use the Astromaster as a solar scope - with appropriate filter of course. The iOptron Smartstar tracks the object very well and gets the GPS co-ordinates on startup. It is also the cheapest goto mount you can buy - they usually sell around $500 new but you can get them for less second hand. People tend to sell them because they don't know how to md them to handle more weight. Just do a Google search for iOptron Smartstar reviews and mods - its all there.
I have also had it on my Vixen Porta II Alt-Az mount, and it works fine on that manual mount - which also has train and track motors available for it.
In the end, if your using a manual or non-goto mount you need to know something about finding objects in the sky, using planetarium apps, charts, or key bright indictors
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